Chapter 46: Accident

“What are you doing?” Yang Sang, covered in hair, rushed out of the car, shouting as he walked, “Hey, hey, I’m talking to you. Are you trying to show off your strength?”

Although the other employees of the studio didn’t say anything, they all stood by Qin Qing.

Suddenly, the situation turned around, as if they were ganging up on the couple.

When the crowd gathered, the child’s mother had already taken her child and moved back. The child’s father took out his phone: “Still trying to force a sale? You dare to touch me, just try it. I’ll call the police right now.”

Qin Qing raised her hand to stop her employees, who were slightly impulsive in their desire to protect her, then said to the man, “Sir, you’ve misunderstood. I said I wouldn’t take money. I was just here to have fun, and I happened to pass by and noticed something about your son, so I thought I’d remind you.”

Han Jun had already quickly and quietly explained the situation to the newcomers.

Everyone looked at the child, then back at the couple who were glaring at them with hostile eyes, and their gazes were filled with pity.

Qin Fanghao: “Sigh, believe it or not, it’s up to you.”

The couple looked at each other, full of suspicion, their eyes scanning back and forth across the group from the studio.

Qin Qing spoke at the right time: “It’s not easy to raise this child. Even if I’m a swindler, you can choose to believe it rather than not. He almost didn’t make it when he was in the womb, and he must have been weak for a period after birth. At three years old, he had a severe limb injury. At five, he went missing once, and his next tribulation is today.”

“How do you know?” The child’s parents exchanged glances, and the mother asked hesitantly, “Are you really fortune-tellers? My child broke his hand when he was three, and almost got abducted when he ran away from home at five.”

“How could this be fake?” Lou Xinyue, having children herself, could better understand the parents’ psychology. She said earnestly, “We’re not after anything. Even if you don’t believe it, for the sake of your child, why not give it a try… Do you know how much my boss charges for a divination? 7 figures. Today, we told you about such a major death tribulation, didn’t take a penny, and you still cursed us.”

The couple said nothing more, only tightly gripping the little boy’s hand, keeping him confined by their side.

But when Qin Qing looked at the child’s System Panel again, the gray text had disappeared, and the inky blackness on the System Panel’s background gradually faded, turning into an ordinary misty white.

Qin Qing finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the couple had decided not to let the child near the water again.

A long-awaited System Panel reward notification instantly sounded.

[Directly assisted in saving 1 life, gaining 2 Experience Points.]

[Current Level 5 (4/160).]

These few Experience Points were a drop in the bucket for leveling up.

Qin Qing glanced at it and then ignored it.

She casually asked, “Where were you planning to go swimming?”

The child’s mother pointed to the wild stream behind them: “We were just going down there.”

Lou Xinyue advised, “Don’t be greedy when you have a child with you. I saw many deep pools in that wild stream, too deep for a child. Don’t regret it for a lifetime for a few hundred yuan.”

The child’s mother held back from speaking, but it was clear that she was unhappy with Lou Xinyue’s lecturing tone.

Qin Qing didn’t naively believe that people who hadn’t experienced pain and regret would be grateful for her words.

She motioned for her employees to pick out the fruits they wanted and then continue on their way.

This entanglement here had taken up almost 20 minutes without them noticing.

Qin Qing helped Lou Xinyue carry some of the cherry tomatoes she had just bought.

They walked towards where the car was parked.

The car was parked right at the entrance to the path leading down to the wild stream.

Calling it an “entrance” wasn’t accurate; there was no road there originally.

From the highway down to the wild stream was a mountain path created by people walking on a steep slope.

Before getting into the car, Qin Qing looked towards the wild stream again.

This glance made her pupils instantly contract. She almost thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.

What did she see?

Looking down, as far as her eyes could see, it was a dense, dark expanse.

Many people’s System Panels were black.

She blinked, closed the System Panel, and restarted it.

That’s right, she hadn’t seen wrong.

They were black System Panels.

This was the first time she had seen so many black System Panels together.

Even in a hospital, she had never seen such a dense, oppressive expanse of black.

Lou Xinyue, who was right behind Qin Qing, was stopped by her sudden halt.

“Boss?” she called out.

Qin Qing ignored her, instead pushing the basket she was holding into Lou Xinyue’s hands. Qin Qing walked from the back of the car to the other side. That side was closer to the wild stream.

Several people, carrying picnic baskets and swimming rings, were walking towards them, laughing and chatting.

Qin Qing was standing at the entrance to the path leading down to the wild stream.

One person politely said, “Excuse me, please, thank you.”

Qin Qing stared intently at this person’s System Panel.

In his log, in the final gray text prediction, it was clearly written:

[13:39: Died from underwater asphyxiation.]

Just like the little boy earlier.

Looking at the others behind this person, two more people also had black System Panels.

Their log predictions were the same:

[13:35: Died from underwater asphyxiation.]

The person saw that she wasn’t moving or speaking, so he raised his voice and called her again.

Qin Qing: “I’m sorry, you can’t go this way.”

Without time to explain anything else, Qin Qing said to her employees, “Stop them, don’t let them go down.”

Her face must have been extremely grim, even Lu Yang, who loved to clown around the most, didn’t joke or drag his feet. He executed the command as soon as he heard it.

How could those people be stopped for no reason? A conflict was about to break out.

Qin Qing turned around and yelled, “If you want to die, go ahead and try!”

That shout made those people pause.

No longer bothering with their reactions, she left them to her employees. Qin Qing rushed down towards the wild stream.

“You guys stay here and stop people from going into the river. I’ll go with Senior Sister,” Liang Jian instructed his colleagues, following closely behind Qin Qing.

Qin Qing didn’t go all the way to the bottom. Still in the middle of the mountain path, she could already see the log information in some of the black System Panels of people closer to her by the stream.

[13:35: Died from underwater asphyxiation.]

[13:45: Died from head impact.]

[13:37: Died from sternum fracture.]

The causes of death were not identical, but the times of death were only 10 minutes apart.

The little boy’s death prediction was not an isolated case at all, but one of ‘n’ in a mass death event.

She raised her hand to check her wristband; the time displayed 12:48.

There was less than 40 minutes until the earliest time of death.

Calm down.

Qin Qing, you need to calm down.

Only you have hope of stopping all of this.

On both sides of the wild stream, tourists were picnicking and playing leisurely, completely unaware of the impending death.

What could cause so many people to die in such a short time?

The System Panel didn’t explicitly say.

But it was nothing more than an accident, a disaster!

A large-scale accident.

Her brain was spinning rapidly.

“Senior Sister.” Liang Jian caught up. “What’s going on?”

Qin Qing hadn’t had time to answer when she saw the System Panel above Liang Jian’s head gradually turn black as he stepped past her to a relatively flat area in front.

The log showed a gray text prediction:

[13:40 Died from underwater asphyxiation.]

Qin Qing’s steps didn’t stop either; the inertia of her movement led her to step onto the same spot as Liang Jian.

Then, a series of piercing System Panel notifications rang out.

[Warning, warning, ongoing personal actions are about to directly cause the death of a key figure in vertical domain development.]

[Warning, warning, after the death of an important figure due to subjective reasons, expulsion may occur. Please immediately cease personal actions.]

[Warning, warning, you have entered a high-risk area. The probability of encountering a death event if you remain in place is 100%. Please leave immediately, please leave immediately!]

[Warning, warning, if you do not actively leave the high-risk area within 5 minutes, the cradle completion state will be forcibly activated prematurely.]

[Warning, warning, premature forced activation of the cradle completion state will cause significant damage to the cradle. The duration of the dormant repair is unknown.]

[Warning, warning, broadcasting again…]

Qin Qing couldn’t bother to process the large amount of information revealed in these warning broadcasts. She took a step back, pulling Liang Jian back with her.

The black on Liang Jian’s System Panel gradually receded.

Hers did too.

The System Panel stopped broadcasting.

Qin Qing grabbed Liang Jian and ran towards the highway, speaking quickly as they ran: “Go, leave here. I saw death, a lot of death. If the people by the wild stream don’t leave, at least a third of them will die.”

After saying this, Liang Jian, who had been pulled by Qin Qing, quickly took two steps forward, forcefully pulling Qin Qing forward.

Liang Jian charged uphill, head down: “Is it an accident?”

Qin Qing, climbing the slope, still found it a bit difficult to keep up with Liang Jian’s long strides. She exhaled and replied, “Possibly, I can’t calculate more.”

Liang Jian quickly glanced back at the wild stream and guessed, “Landslide?”

“Doesn’t seem like it.”

The banks of the wild stream were lush with vegetation, not looking like unstable mountainsides. If it were a landslide or collapse, there wouldn’t be so many deaths from underwater asphyxiation.

Qin Qing said, “Maybe a sudden flash flood?”

The scorching sun was overhead. Liang Jian, looking up, was so blinded by the sun that he couldn’t open his eyes.

“If it’s a flash flood, it can only be a burst dam from heavy rain upstream.”

As they spoke, they had already reached the highway.

Qin Qing raised her hand to check the time, realizing that this back-and-forth had already taken two minutes.

Her and Liang Jian’s voices weren’t low, so even if the people above only heard half of it, they could guess what was going on.

Han Jun: “Boss?”

Qin Qing nodded at him.

He rubbed his numb face, his hand trembling slightly as he took out his phone: “I still keep in touch with some people from relevant units, I’ll try…”

But his fingertips trembled so much he almost dropped the phone.

Qin Qing emphasized: “Before half past one, the evacuation must be completed.”

Their current location only allowed them to see a portion of the people at the wild swimming spot, but this entrance was not the only one. There must be more people further upstream and downstream that they couldn’t see.

Liang Jian: “My dad knows the person in charge of the scenic area. I’ll call my dad.”

This area wasn’t part of the scenic area’s jurisdiction, but it would still be good to get people from nearby to help.

Qin Qing saw a large loudspeaker on the watermelon stand. She pointed it out to the other employees: “Get the loudspeaker. Coax them, trick them, threaten them, just get them up here first. I remember there are other stalls nearby, see if there are any more loudspeakers. Remember, no matter what, protect yourselves first. Stay on the highway and don’t move. You absolutely cannot go down.”

The employees sprang into action. The new tourists seemed to be intimidated by the commotion and no longer insisted on going down.

Instead, when others tried to go down, they hesitantly helped to stop them.

While Qin Qing was arranging these things, she was also contacting people. For such a large-scale accident, relying on just a few of them was like trying to put out a fire with a cup of water.

She first called Lin Feng.

Although Yudai Gorge was far from the main urban area, it still belonged to Wuning District administratively.

She didn’t know anyone else from relevant agencies, so she could only call him, the local expert, first. He wouldn’t be able to make it in time, but he could coordinate people who could.

Answer the phone, quickly answer the phone.

Thank goodness, this guy always carried his phone with him.

“Oh, Teacher Qin. What brings you…”

Qin Qing interrupted him, calling him by his full name, in a tone more serious than ever before.

“Lin Feng, listen.”

The sub-bureau was rarely idle. Lin Feng was originally eating with colleagues in the cafeteria. Hearing this, he put away his playful demeanor and raised a hand to quiet his laughing colleagues.

Their table instantly fell silent.

He spoke: “Tell me.”

“I’m currently at the undeveloped tributary of Yudai Gorge. I’ve sent you the specific location via WeChat. Around 13:30 today, an unknown accident will occur here, directly resulting in multiple deaths. As of now, I’ve seen at least over thirty people. I don’t know how many more people will be involved in the areas upstream and downstream that I can’t see. All personnel must be evacuated before the accident occurs. You only have forty minutes.”

Lin Feng had already stood up halfway through hearing this. With a raise of his hand, everyone at his table stood up. Under his instruction, he also called people from other tables.

The many police officers, suddenly forced to interrupt their lunch, followed Lin Feng’s pace without any hesitation.

Lin Feng made a final confirmation: “Qin Qing, this is no laughing matter.”

Qin Qing: “Lin Feng, I never joke about matters of life and death.”